Alan Turing Institute Research Computing Service Helpdesk

This chapter contains information about the Helpdesk for the Turing’s Research Computing Service. This Helpdesk is run by EPCC.

EPCC Helpdesk

The Helpdesk is the first point of contact for all questions relating to the Turing’s Research Computing Service hosted by EPCC.

Support is available Monday to Friday from 08:30 until 18:00, excluding UK public holidays.

The Helpdesk can be reached by e-mail research-computing-support@turing.ac.uk.

Please try and provide as much background information as possible as this will speed up the processing time considerably. Existing Research Computing Service users will be asked for their user ID, project code, and, where applicable, the commands they are using and the error message they get.

How the helpdesk ticket system works

When a query is submitted by email it is placed in the Turing’s SAFE query system (see Alan Turing Institute SAFE Overview).

When you email your query, you will normally get an automatic acknowledgment by email, including a tracking ID, within a few minutes. If you submit your query through SAFE, it will give you a tracking ID at once. A few minutes later, your query will be assigned to the appropriate expert within the Turing to handle.

The expert may contact you to discuss your problem or to get extra information.

Finally, the expert will send you an answer, and the query will be closed. At this point the helpdesk will send you another message, telling you that this has happened.

Closed queries are kept in the Turing’s SAFE database, so that we can refer back to them when solving future problems, and when writing documentation, etc.

The Turing’s SAFE database is protected by the Alan Turing Institute Research Computing Service Personal Data and Privacy Policy.